A post-mortem examination found that she had suffered pneumonia and blood poisoning.

Al Jazeera's Andrew Thomas, reporting from Port Hedland, said Dhu's death has angered indigenous and non-indigenous Australians, who have had enough of people dying in custody.

"About 1,400 Australians have died in police custody since 1980, among them a disproportionate number of Aboriginal people, because they make up a disproportionately high number of those in prison," Thomas said.

"After much public pressure, the coronial inquest is looking into the exact circumstances of Dhu's death - and whether she was a victim of institutional racism."

Dhu's family is also pushing for changes in how authorities deal with people who have not paid minor fines.

"She paid the biggest price. I want the truth and justice for Juleika," her grandmother Carol Roe told Al Jazeera.

"They knew she was sick. Why didn't they ring an ambulance to take her. No, they chucked her in the back of a paddy wagon to take her - and that’s not right."